The Sorcery Club eBook

“Or any of the other so-called vices,”
Hamar continued. “So we can manage that
all right. As to cheating—­having nothing
to cheat with—­according to instructions
we’ve got to keep in with each other, so present
company is excepted—­we must pass over that.
Now—­how about thieving!”

“Never done any yet, so can’t say,”
Curtis exclaimed.

“Nor I either,” Kelson put in rather hurriedly.

“Well, I didn’t suppose you had!”
Hamar laughed; “though, after all, more than
half the world does thieve—­all employers
steal labour from their employes, all tradesmen steal
a profit—­the wholesale man from the middleman—­the
middleman from the retailer. Every Government
thieves. Look at England—­righteous
England! At one time or another she has stolen
land in every part of the world. But theft is
an ugly word. When statesmen steal it’s
called diplomacy, when the rich steal it’s called
kleptomania or business, and it’s only when the
poor steal that stealing is termed theft. We
who have every excuse—­we who are starving—­will
be content with—­that is to say—­we
will only take—­just enough to keep us alive—­a
few lumps of sugar, a handful of raisins, or a loaf
of bread. How about that?”

“I don’t mind stealing food so much,”
Kelson said. “In the face of so much wealth—­and
waste too—­it seems a bigger sin to starve
than to steal a loaf of bread.”

“The lying and stealing are fixed then,”
Hamar laughed. “What you have to do, too,
is to make the most of every opportunity you can find
of doing people—­present company excepted—­bad
turns.”

“I don’t see how—­in our present
condition—­we can do any one much harm,”
Curtis remarked. “We haven’t even
the means to buy a tin sword, let alone a bomb or
pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will
do instead.”

“Possibly—­but don’t be such
an ass as to wish any one any good!” Hamar said.
“Do your best to carry out the injunctions I
have given you, and we will meet here, this day week,
to discuss the tests.”

CHAPTER IV

THE TESTS

Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis’s
and Kelson’s door and walked in. A faint
sigh of relief escaped him.

“I see we are all right so far,” he said.
“I wondered whether I should find you both flown,
or lying stretched in the icy hands of death.
Have you experimented?”

“We have,” Curtis said. “We’ve
done our best. In what way, we prefer not to
say.”